Liverpool’s ownership saga has continued to be the focus of media attention on the club, despite a dramatic opening weekend draw against Arsenal at Anfield.

The Reds were denied a very hard-earned three points by an embarrassing, if rare, mistake from Spanish goalkeeper Pepe Reina, despite playing the entire second half with only ten men after debutant Joe Cole’s straight red-card for a lunge on Laurent Koscielny in first-half stoppage-time.

French striker David Ngog fired Liverpool ahead on 46 minutes, only for Reina to spill a Tomas Rosicky cross under pressure and divert the ball into the net as it rebounded back to him off the post.

Liverpool were considering an appeal against Cole’s dismissal and subsequent three-match ban but eventually declined to do so.

 

However, Cole may have wished he was suspended for Liverpool’s 1-0 Europa League victory over Turkish side Trabzonspor as he saw his second-half penalty saved after creating Ryan Babel’s winning goal.

There has been embarrassingly little progress in the club’s takeover talks, leading to speculation that the UK taxpayer might ultimately end up in control of the club.

Last April, co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett were ordered by the club’s bankers, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to sell the club in order to repay the £237m the club owed them.

A five-man board, chaired by former British Airways chairman Martin Broughton, was tasked with supervising the process.

At the start of August, Hong-Kong based Huang Jin-Hua and Canadian-based Syrian-born Yahya Kirdi, came forward claiming to be fronting consortia of unknown identity and source of funding.

And after a week of claim and counter-claim by the parties, the Liverpool board set a deadline of August 13^th for them to provide details of a firm bid, backed by proof of funds.

However, they had to cancel a meeting convened for the purpose of examining the bids, as none were submitted in time.

Subsequently, it has been reported that up to five interested parties have submitted some form of proposal for consideration by the board, who are now examining these “very carefully.”

RBS have set a deadline for the repayment of their loans of October 6^th, otherwise they have the option of taking over the running of the club. RBS has been majority-owned by the UK taxpayer since the global banking crisis took hold last year.

Amid this confusion, new manager Roy Hodgson has been attempting to finalise his squad for the season, and is involved in a battle over influential Argentine midfielder Javier Mascherano.

Mascherano has indicated a desire to move but Hodgson said: “Either a club doesn’t offer us his valuation, in which case he stays, or we have an offer which does, in which case he may go.”

Hodgson has brought in Danish international defender/midfielder Christian Poulsen from Juventus for £4.5m on a three-year deal and young Middlesbrough keeper Brad Jones for £2.3m.

And Slovakian World Cup defender Martin Skrtel has signed a two-year extension to his contract, keeping him at Anfield until 2014.